You know, every once in a while, you see something really odd while combing through stat lines. (What, you don't comb through stat lines? Huh. What are you, some kind of nerd?) And so I have to ask you a question: when would say that a man hitting .150 is just flat-out too good for his level?
The answer: why, when you're Brett Wallace, that's when.
See, over the past week, Double A pitchers have stopped throwing to Wallace anything even resembling a strike. To go along with that .150 batting average, Wallace is sporting a nifty .433 on base percentage. You're not reading that wrong. He's hitting .150, but still getting on base in over 40 percent of his plate appearances. Apparently, the only time Wallace makes an out is when he reaches for a ball out of the zone; unfortunately for him, that seems to be the only sort of pitch he's getting these days.
Overall on the year, Wallace is putting up a batting line of .275/.453/.475, which is obviously much better, but not nearly as interesting. He did go 3-5 last night, so someone is willing to pitch to him; of course, considering the results, that may only reinforce teams' belief that just avoiding Wallace altogether is the best course of action.
I've gone on the record before as saying that Wallace likely wouldn't have been my pick in last year's draft; luckily for Cardinal fans, I'm not the guy making the call on draft picks, because Wallace is looking like an incredibly brilliant choice by the Cards' draft guys.
I'm going to say it right now: Brett Wallace will be the Cardinals' starting third baseman next year, maybe as early as opening day. I don't care if the glove is just okay; it's simply going to become impossible to keep the guy's bat out of the major leagues before too very long. You heard it here first.
